KALEN

Chapter |4| Teenage Fantasies

T E S S A ' S P.O. V

This party sucks.

Some i***t thought a fog machine would be a good idea and I'm practically choking on the thick mist. Not to mention it obscures my vision, meaning I lost Kiara within the first five minutes of being here.

I want to go home. Three guys have always already touched my ass without permission, and the thong I'm wearing is starting to chafe.

"Hey Izzy, have you seen Kiara?" The pink haired girl, coughs violently from her vape. I cringe as the fruity smoke hits my face.

"I think I saw her with Sawyer, but I'm kind of out it." I watch her hazy eyes struggle to stay open and quickly move her onto the couch.

She's with Sawyer? f*****g great. He's a known stoner who goes to another school, and recently has become a dealer to pretty much all girls at my Catholic school. I'm also pretty sure he has a thing for Kiara too, and the last thing she needs is a drug addicted boyfriend.

I search the whole house, finally finding the two of them in a room together upstairs. They're not kissing but when I walk in, Kiara's lipstick is smudged.

"What the hell are you doing?" I snap at Sawyer. He rolls his eyes and flips me off.

Ignoring him, I grab Kiara's arm and pull her up. Like Izzy, her eyes are glassed over and she sticks of weed.

"What did you give her?"

"Something to relax. She asked for it. Maybe you should take some too?" He waved a joint in my face.

"f**k off." I shove him away and drag her out of the room. "Are you okay? Do you feel alright?"

"I'm fine. I just feel a little sick." I know cider didn't get her this drunk.

"What did you have?"

"Some vodka and coke, a little whiskey."

"I'm gonna kill Sawyer." I mumble. "Okay, let's go outside."

We manage to make it out of the smoke filled house. The music still blares loudly, and Kiara groans as she hunches over. Some guys notice Kiara's ass and start moving towards us.

Clearly they don't see my deathly glare that is anything but inviting.

"Want a drink?" They hold up cans of shitty beer.

"No, she's sick." I snap. Two of them back away but the third still lingers. I recognise him as Luke Evans, the star quarterback at the boys only school downtown. "She's clearly not up for talking so please leave."

"I don't want to talk to her. I want to talk you." I glance up him, warily assessing. What guy would want me next to Kiara?

"Why?"

He shrugs. "I just think you would be better company."

Luke is very attractive. He has short blonde hair, that sticks up in all directions, and the kind of green eyes you don't easily forget.

"I can't right now, my friend isn't well." Kiara proceeds to throw up and the other two guys groan in disgust. I send them a seething look.

"Will you two f**k off?" Luke says for me. They grumble something incoherent but leave anyways. I flash Luke an appreciative smile as I rub Kiara's back.

"What about another time then? Maybe next week at the new burger joint in town?"

I open my mouth to say no as a reflex. No guy every amounted to Kalen in my eyes, so I always rejected them no matter what. Yet, Luke is nice, and calm. It's a date, one little date.

"Sure, here's my number." I rattle off the digits whilst he types them into his phone.

"See you next week." He grins, walking away. I smile to myself, those butterflies that I thought had been squashed suddenly reviving.

"He's cute." Kiara groans.

"You didn't even see him."

"He sounded cute then." I help her up and we on the wall together. The night is quiet and peaceful. She rests her head on my shoulder, silently crying.

The wet tears drop onto my bare arms. I should move to comfort her, but she's glued to my side just like this, and for some reason this feels intimate than a hug.

"Can I tell you something?"

"Anything."

"Aaron is bad."

"I know that." I had met him once and he oozed sexy bad boy charm. Within one glance, he had you hooked and unless someone managed to pull you away from his entrancing baby blue eyes, you were a goner.

"No, I mean he's really really bad. He's a gangster." She whispers.

"Okay, I think you're still drunk."

"No, no, no." She stumbles over her words. "He really is, but he's my dad's rival as well. That just makes everything worse."

"Rival? What?"

"My dad is a mafia boss." With those words my mind is reeling.

"Kiara you're drunk and we are going home." I hop off the wall to call an Uber.

She desperately grabs my arm. "No, he really is and it makes me so scared because anyday he could just die. I could die, my mom, Kai...we're all involved. And Tristan...Tristan knew, I think...he was using me because of my dad...I think Aaron was too."

"Oh Kia," She collapses into my arms and begins to sob again just as the Uber I ordered pulls up.

When we arrive at the mansion, Kiara is practically asleep. I'm scared of waking her up, only to condemn her to more pain and tears, so I text Kalen to come down and open the gate.

"Is she drunk?" He comments, taking her from my arms. I reach into my purse to pay the driver but Kalen chucks him a hundred dollar bill instead.

"I could have gotten it."

He shrugs. "I have money, you don't." Compared to the Romanos, I was practically living in destitute.

Thinking about their wealth, I realised I didn't even know what Kiara's father did. I know it was soemthing to do with shipping but Kiara had never lied to me before. Never, not even when she was drunk, and a part of me felt there was some truth behind it all.

I'm scared to ask Kalen. Scared of what happen if it was all true.

He sneaks us back in through the garage which Kiara doesn't have access to yet. It leads up to the second floor where Kiara's bedroom is situated.

I wait outside as he tucks her into bed, anxiously gnawing on my bottom lip as I think of all the ways this next part could go.

"Don't do that." His voice suddenly whispers into my ear. I startle back.

"Do what?" He reaches out to pull my bottom lip forward so it's no longer caught between my teeth.

"Something's wrong." I hate he can read me like an open book. I also hate he doesn't even know how much I can't stop thinking about him.

"I need to talk to you. Privately." I eye the open corridor. Anyone could walk through and one look at my dress, they would know exactly where Kiara and I have been.

"Come to my room." He grips my hand to lead me there. As though I haven't imagined being in it a million times.

It's lighter than I imagined. He has a projector that shines a hundred multi-coloured stars across the ceiling. Posters of various basketball players are littered across the wall and in the corner is a desk covered in sheets of paper with his scrawled writing all across.

I drift towards it and pick up a sheet. It's a financial broadcast, annotated and labelled. Atop are the words Predicted Revenue from Product 3, and the numbers are startlingly high.

"Don't touch that." He snatches it off me and begins to tidy up.

"Why not? Is it something to do with the fact your dad's a mafia don?" Kalen's entire body seizes. "Or is this is yours? Are you part of it all too? Of course, you are. You all are, you're all...criminals and liars and..."

I'm suddenly slammed against the wall. One of his hands is gripping my neck, not tight enough to choke me, but enough to know the option is there, and the other is pinning my waist back.

"You don't know a f*****g thing." I'm done being the scared little cat. I've rattled the tiger and now it's time to let him out of his cage.

"Of course not, you've only lied to me. My best friend lied to me. You don't think I deserved to know who I was hanging out with everyday, that the place I considered a home is funded for by drugs and guns."

"How do you..."

"Kiara told me. She was drunk so don't blame her." I'm pissed though. Angry they lied to me, everyone did, including him. I'm more angry about that than the fact they really are criminals.

"You don't know a f*****g about this."

"Then tell me. I'm sick of half truths, just tell me." He sighs, but still retains his hold on me.

Then he speaks the truth. All of the truth.

At first I'm mind boggled that this is really happening. That there's a mafia in New York and I'm best friend's with the mafia Princess. Then I'm interested. In how the police are in on it, on how corrupt the world really is and how Kalen plays a part in it all.

"Are you ready run yet?" He looks so defeated, like he's always decided the way plays out.

This family might be dangerous, they might be volatile and I might be very stupid for not running like he wants me to. But they were also their for me in times no-one else was. In ways, not even my own parents are.

Without them, I wouldn't be me.

I place my hand on his, the one wrapped around my waist and squeeze it tight. He eyes me curiously, especially when I push forward until all that separates us is an inch of air.

"I'm not running, I'm not scared. I know you Kalen and all of this doesn't change the person you are, the person...I'm still in love with."

He inhaled a sharp breath of air. I see the look in his eyes, and there's no ounce of surprises. He's known, all this time, he's known how I've felt and no it's all coming out.

No more lies, only naked truths.

"Tess, you know you can't..."

"Why not? I can't hide it anymore Kalen, and I don't want to. So stop me or don't." I watch as his eyes flutter shut as my lips brush his.

We suddenly mould together. His hands settle on my waist, reaching round to cup my ass. As I moan, he deepens the kiss, sinking his fingers into my curls and tugging on it lightly.

Our bodies stumble towards the bed, his back hits the comforter and I'm on top of him, gently rocking back and forth as we grind. He's so fluid in his movements, smoothly rolling us around so I'm underneath him and he's on top.

"Tess, oh Tess." I relish in that sound, and it's already been tattooed onto my mind.

My neck is smothered in kisses, as his fingers work smartly to yanks my dress down. The material hits the floor somewhere, and his teeth expertly undo my bra.

"How did you..." His reply is sexy smirk that makes me melt.

I let his fingers slip underneath my panties. I let them touch me in ways no-one ever has.

"More." I can't stop. I need more of him. His kisses are like a rush of adrenaline, but I'm a junkie and every one is just fuelling the craving, unsatisfying yet pleasurable.

"Wait." He grabs my hands and lifts them over my head. I let my fingers curl around the metal bars, my body straining, whilst his fingers brush over my clit.

"I need...I need you."

"How?" His gruff voice invades every dirty thought. It allows reality to seep in.

"Inside of me?" s*x was the next part, right?

We had kissed, he touched me and next was putting his c**k inside of me. Kiara had taught me a little, my Catholic side normally came out during discussing such topics so I shied away but I couldn't hide from books, magazines and movies that showcased it all.

A small laugh escaped his chest. "We're not going to have s*x Tessa."

"We're not?"

"No. You're not ready." Something about that statement sparked anger.

"How the hell would you know?"

"Because I've barely touched you, yet you're already squirming...shivering...soaking." Each word caused my p***y to thrum. He was right. Nothing had even penetrated me yet and I was already writhing.

"You're a virgin." I could only nod. "If you want me to stop, just say it. Any doubt, any regret, tell me." I nod again.

"Words Tess."

"Yes. I want this. Please,"

His lips tilt up. "You don't have to beg, I want this as much as you." Then he kisses me again, softer than before. I realise he's distracting me from the small pain that burns as he pushes one fingers in.

I mould around, adjusting, just as he pushed another in. A gasp leaves me. My lower body is practically on fire and I start to rock against him.

Slowly at first, and then more desperately than I ever have. His head dips down, allowing his tongue to flick my n****e. He alternates between both breasts, whilst his thumb starts to rub my clit.

I'm lost within the sensation. It's so much, my

mind can't keep up. I forget my life long fantasy is coming true, I forget it's Kalen Romano with his fingers inside of me, I forget all my worries and fears and just give in.

"Kale...oh my," I'm lost. My eyes roll so far back into my head, I don't know how to recover.

I feel myself suffocate his fingers, entrapping them inside of me so they can never leave.

"Tess, it's okay." His words are soft as the kisses he plants down my neck.

One of his hands releases mine, reaching down to squeeze my breast and the other gently retracts from my lower half. I let my arms wrap around him, and our bodies sink into each other, a perfect fit.

His kisses become more urgent, trailing up towards my cheeks, kissing every part of my face except my lips.

Then he suddenly pulls back, his chocolate eyes staring into mine. I don't see hope in them, I don't see happiness, or excitement. I see regret...sadness.

"What's wrong?" A thousand worries are consuming my mind, cluttered with fear of rejection.

"I wanted to give you that...but it can't happen again. We...can't happen."

"What?" This is a nightmare. I've had them so many times before. I pinch my skin, hoping to wake up. Yet, all I see is him. Breaking my heart once again.

"I'm older."

"By three years! That's nothing." In two years, I would be 18 and he would be 21. No-one would even bat an eyelash at us.

"I can't be with anyone right now. My dad needs me, I have to focus on school as week, basketball and you have a life to live. A life that shouldn't concern my family. We're dangerous."

"Kiara is my best friend. I'm not going anywhere, and the fact your father is a mafia leader doesn't change that. I don't care."

"Well you should!" He practically screams. "Have you ever watched anyone die? Because I have. I had to hold my friend and watch him bleed out for a bullet meant for me. We were 13, at the basketball courts. He didn't know anything, and did deserve to suffer for my family's mistakes. I won't let the same thing happen to you."

"Why did you do that then? Why did you give me hope?" He reaches out to touch me but I instantly recoil away. I hate that my heart clenched at the look of pain that encompasses his eyes.

"I'm sorry Tess. You're beautiful and kind and smart and any guy would be lucky to have you. Just trust me when I say I am not the right guy for you."

I turn away in silence and grab my clothes, quickly shoving on my dress. My eyes don't meet his as I leave his own, and I bury down any tears that threaten to break free.

Yet, the moment I enter the bathroom, I let go. I cry for all the years that stupid girl spent loving Kalen Romano, because I know I'll never be her again.

________________________________

A/N: ? Do you think Kalen did the right thing in letting her go??

Thoughts on their first steamy scene??